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New boiler needed? Any opinions please?

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Luckylegs Tue 30-Jun-20 12:34:59

Just had a man round to service our boiler. He dropped the bombshell that we shouldn’t throw a lot of money at it as 10 year old Worcester Bosch aren’t as good as older or newer ones and it needs a part (for £300 approx) or preferably replacing at a cost of at least £2000! Our last house had a 40 year old boiler in it when we sold it! I’m astonished and not a little suspicious.

It’s true that we called him out because it kept losing pressure and apparently this means a part has gone which is very hard to get to, so the boiler would have to be taken down before replacement. He said moving a 10 yr old boiler might cause more problems and he was just surprised we haven’t had any problems before and we’d been very lucky.

My husband wants to leave it until later in the year as we don’t obviously need a new one just now and we’d struggle to just find £2000 plus like that but does anyone have any opinion please?

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Oopsminty Wed 01-Jul-20 07:37:53

Hi Luckylegs! A gas engineer of 30+ years assures me it's the expansion vessel which needs pumping up. Not a hard nor expensive procedure.

Did they actuals check the expansion vessel pressure?

Great boiler which should serve you well for a few years more!

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25Avalon Wed 01-Jul-20 11:41:55

The loft IS a terrible place for a boiler. Not only difficult to access but gets cold up there so switches itself on when not needed, usually in the middle of the night, then we freeze during the day to pay for it. I have a long bungalow with 2 boilers, one at each end so maintenance insurance was colossal. This system was in place when we arrived unfortunately. It was too expensive and impracticable to replace all the pipe work so we put the new boilers in but one has the leak. Both guaranteed 7 years and annual service is only about£50. Vaillant who made the boilers say the pressure problem is nothing to do with the boiler so tough.

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Jane43 Wed 01-Jul-20 12:31:34

Our plumber also recommends Worcester boilers, however he came to service our GlowWorm boiler last week and commented that the noise it was making is because it needs a new pump. DH asked if it was better to put the £300 it would cost towards a new boiler and he said no the boiler is good and will last many more years. I would also get a second opinion but would also say avoid British Gas as their estimates are exorbitant and they charge for them if you don’t purchase from them. We respect our plumber’s opinion, he is very good and only charges £70 for an annual service.

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Luckylegs Fri 03-Jul-20 16:16:05

Just an update. Thanks all of you but particularly Oopsminty whose friend was right. Got a second opinion who came today. It is hopefully just the expansion vessel which he fettled there and then for £40 and he assured us that if it fails again it’s not a big job to replace and the boiler should last a few more years! It just goes to show, you can’t trust anyone, can you?

On the bright side, we decided to get a new TV which is coming on Sunday so I’m excited about that!

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Namsnanny Fri 03-Jul-20 16:50:23

I am pleased for you Luckylegs these big bills are a worry!

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FoghornLeghorn Fri 17-Jul-20 17:51:45

This is interesting as I’ve just had a quote from BG as a result of my annual service. My boiler was new when the house was built so now 23 years and apparently running at 75% efficiency. Also, no spares available. New one quoted at £2300 which includes Hive. I’m going to get a quote from an independent installer for the same boiler. Not eligible for a grant. I think understandably you have to be on benefits or have a very low income.

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